Former Ako Bicol Partylist Representative Zaldy Co attributed the “blank spaces” in the House-ratified version of the proposed 2025 national budget to the Senate, not the House.
In a seven-page confidential letter reportedly sent to President Bongbong Marcos in February, Co wrote: “(A)llow me to clarify that the current issues about ‘blank spaces’ in the bicameral conference report are due to the inadvertent omission by the Senate Finance Committee Secretariat. It is most unfair to blame the hardworking men and women of the House appropriations committee for this faux pas when every year the Senate has been in charge of finalizing the bicameral conference reports.”
Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab had earlier raised concerns about blank entries in allocations for certain agencies.
Co reassured that safeguards in the bicameral report would prevent issues in the final version: “Be that as it may, there are sufficient safeguards in the bicameral report to ensure that the President will only sign the duly approved enrolled copy of the bill, which contains no blank items. The House and the Senate ensured—through an omnibus provision—that in case of conflict or possible errors, the enrolled copy of the bill always prevails over all other drafts or reports that came before the bill’s enactment.”
Allies of former President Rodrigo Duterte had previously questioned the blank entries before the Supreme Court.